How to get gum out of one's fur
by loveydovey14
Summary: Etcetera gets gum stuck in her fur and the kits try to help out, but things get a little sticky.


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**Disclaimer: I do not own _Cats_**

******Property of Andrew Lloyd Webber and T.S. Elliot**

**********I think most of us out there have had this problem before. I haven't but I'm prety sure it's a hassle. What will Etcety do? Just a simple short story.**

**R&R. If I get too many mean comments, I will delete this story. Enjoy!**

Title really sucks, I know, but I couldn't come up with anything better.

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It was a beautiful summer afternoon in the London junkyard, or as the cats reffered to it as "The Jellicle junkyard". On one particular afternoon, the queen kittens of the tribe, Victoria, Electra, Etcetera, and Jemima, were out in the opening by the big tire.

"Tag, your it!" Electra shouted as she put her paw on Jemima's back. "Raaahhh!" Jemima shouted. This was the third time in 2 minutes she was tagged. She couldn't help it if she was the slowest kitten of the bunch.

"Come back here!" She dashed after Victoria. Victoria dashed on top of the tire and joined Electra and Etcetera. They giggled as Jemima tried to jump up and tag them.

"No fair!" Jemima whined. "You guys know I'm not as big as you all!" Jemima couldn't help if she was small either. She finally struggled to the top of the tire when all the others turned their heads. "It's Tugger!" Etcetera squealed with glee. All four of them quickly licked their paws and smoothed out their headfur trying to look their prettiest.

Tugger strutted past them not even looking up. "Kits." he said casually. "Tugger." They all chimed. Tuger walked on. The kits all sighed and leaned forward. Perhaps a little too far forward. Etcetera lost her balance and tumbled onto the ground head first.

"Ow!" She cried. Victoria, Electra, and Jemima bounded down to her. "Are you alright?" Electra asked. Etcetera got to her feet, er, paws. She rubbed her paw on her head.

"Yeah, I'm..." Suddenly, she felt something on her head. "...fine". Something was caught in her fur. It was sticky, and smelled a little fruity. Etcetera realized what it was: "AHHHH! THERE'S GUM IN MY FUR!"

The other queen-kits looked at the sticky mess and cringed. "Ewww!". The gum was dirty and had a few dead flys stuck in it.

"That's disgusting!" Victoria said. "Gum that has been in some human's filthy mouth, coated in dirt, in your own fur! Ugh, I would just _die _if that happened to me!"

"Well, don't just stand there, guys! Help me get it out!" Etcetera cried. Jemima stepped forward and tried to pull it out. She pulled, but it didn't budge. She pulled harder, making the gum stretch. "OW!" Etcetera cried out in pain. Victoria and Electra grabbed Jemima's waist and helped her pull. They eventually lost their strength and let go. The gum snapped back on Etcety's head, and the other kittens toppled backwards.

"Why don't we put shampoo on it? My owner does that when she cleans her hair." Jemima suggested. Etcetera rubbed her head where the gum was. "Um, okay."

"I saw a bottle of shampoo around here the other day." Jemima scampered off to find it. She returned a minute later with the shampoo. Without hesitation, she dumped half the contents of the bottle onto Etcetera. Victoria, Jemima, and Electra grabbed the gum once more, and pulled with all their might. Etcetera screamed in pain.

"Hold on Etcety! I think it's starting to come out!" Jemima shouted. The kits tool a step backward, but Electra slipped on a drop of shampoo, and fell on Victoria, who fell on Jemima, and they flung forward. They all bashed into Etcetera and the gum exploded around them, entrapping them all together.

"AHHH! GROSS! Victoria cried. "My fur is ruined!" Victoria struggled desperatley to get out of the gummy mess, but to no avail.

Electra rolled her eyes. "What are we gonna do?" Jemima said.

A familiar voice came from above. "Um, what are you girls doing?" The kits looked up and saw the tribes tom-kits, Pouncival, Tumblebrutus, and Plato on top of a trash mound.

"Oh, Pouncie!" Jemima cried. "Could you please help us?" The tom-kits scampered down, well, Plato scampered, Tumblebrutus tumbled, and Pouncival pounced, to where their trapped queen friends were.

"What happened to you guys?" Tumblebrutus asked, tilting his head to the side. "I accidently got gum in my fur." Etcetera sighed.

"Can you help us?" Electra asked. Tumble, Pounce, and Plato, exchanged glances, and finally, they all shrugged in unison.

"Well, first we gotta get this shampoo off." Plato said. "What'll get off shampoo?"

"Let's try dirt!" Pouncival suggested. "DIRT?" all the queen-kits cried, but before they could protest, the toms were covering them with dirt from the ground they were standing on. Before they knew it, they were covered in gum, shampoo, AND dirt.

"Hmmm, that doesn't seem to be working" Tumble said rubbing his chin.

"Oh gee, ya THINK?" Victoria yelled. "Sorry, sorry." Plato said. Then he remembered something important. "Hey, I remember a time my owner was watching a show where a girl got gum stuck in her hair."

"Wha'd she do? Wha'd she do?" Jemima cried. Plato rubbed his head. "She put some sort of food product on the gum. But...I can't quite remember what it was, exactly. What was it? Ketchup? Relish? Poupon?" He thought, and thought. "I got it!" He finally shouted. "It was_...marshmallow fluff_!" Plato ran back to his den and returned with a jar of JET-PUFF.

The queen-kits exchanged confused looks. "How does food get another type of food out of our fur?" Etcetera asked. Plato opened the jar, dug his paw in and started spreading it on the queens. Pouncival and Tumblebrutus copied him.

"Ah! Watch where you put your paws, Plato!" Jemima yelled. Soon they had fluff all over them. "Now we should have no trouble getting you guys out." Pouncival exclaimed. "Ladies, grab onto each other, I'll take you guys, while Plato and Tumble pull the gum out!"

Electra grabbed Jemima, Jemima grabbed Etcetera, Etcetera grabbed Victoria, and Victoria grabbed Pouncival. Plato and Tumblebrutus grabbed a pawfull of the gum surounding the girls, and they all started to pull. They strained with all their might! But unfortunatley, Tumblebrutus slipped on the same spot of shampoo Electra slipped on earlier. Tumble lost his footing, and fell onto Plato. they were both pulled forward. they slammed into the girls, who slammed into Pouncival. Now everyone was in a big mess of gum, shampoo, dirt, and marshmallow fluff.

"Our heroes." Electra said sarcastically. "What'll we do?" Etcetera cried.

While the kits tried to think, Skimbleshanks entered the junkyard. He happily hummed a tune. His returning from work to the junkyard was a routine. He would walk past the kits, who usually played outside, and recieve a hardy "Hello, Skimble!" But oddly enough, there was no "hello". Skimble was puzzled. Then he smelled something odd. It smelt of marshmallow, shampoo, and a few other odd things. Then he looked over to see the trapped kittens.

"Great beasties! What happened t'you wee kits?"

"We've been trying to get gum out of Etcetera's fur, but now we're all stuck together." Tumblebrutus answered.

"We've tried shampoo, dirt, marshmallow fluff, and we're almost out of ideas!" Victoria said. Skimbleshanks chuckled in response. "Well, ye've come to the right cat! I got gum in me fur when I was a kit once, and know jus' what to do!" The kits smiled. "But first," Skimble added. "In order to do it, we have to get ev'rything else off of ye."

Skimble went to his den, and came back with a hose. "Wait, what are you..." Jemima started to say, but Skimble started to blast them with the hose. Finally, all that was in front of Skimble was a heap of wet, shivering kittens connected by gum.

"Alright, now the trick to getting out gum is...peanut butter." Skimble pulled a jar of peanut butter out from behind him.

"Oh yeah! It was peanut butter!" Plato exclaimed. "I KNEW it was some kind of food."

"Well, _thanks_ for remembering!" Electra shouted. "Calm down now." Skimble said, as he started to spread the sandwich topping all over them. When he was done, he grabbed Victoria, and gently pried her away from the bunch. He set her down, then did the same with Tumble, Pounce, Electra, Plato, and Jemima. Soon, they were all disconnected from each other.

"Now, just gently work and tease the gum out of yer fur." Skimble said. All the kits started to pull the gum out of their fur and put it all in a pile.

"It worked!" Jemima cried. "But what about the peanut butter?"

"A good bath'll get it off. Now go find Jenny and Jelly to help ye." Skimble said.

"Thank you, Skimble!" All the kits chimed at once before running off. Skimble took the gum that was now back into a small wad, and tossed it behind him. It flew over a trash pile, and onto a certain maine coon who was sleeping. The gum splatted into his luxourious mane. Tugger twitched and woke up. He looked at what the annoyance was and saw it.

"AHHHH! Not in my mane!"

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**ROFL! Poor Tugger. Imagine how long it will take himto get that gum out. Again, R&R!**


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